Dick is a man of principle and I admire and fully support his stance.
The problem is that corporations practice "captive customer" principles on a regular basis.
I worked in a different field to aviation - in earthmoving and mining - but the systems were exactly the same as Dick is experiencing.
As a manufacturer, fit a component to a machine that an owner of their product cannot buy or get repaired anywhere else - and if you're the customer, roll up with a large jar of Vaseline when it fails, and be prepared to get bent over.
Caterpillar were and probably still are masters at this technique. So much so, that many Caterpillar bearings were "proprietary lines".
That means you can get the number off the Cat bearing, present it to your regular bearing supplier - and once the parts person reads it, they shake their head, stating they are unable to supply, because the bearing is specifically not made to any SAE or regular bearing standard or size - it's built to Cat specifications, and to Cat dimensions.
Caterpillar will even produce a standard dimension bearing and then manufacture in .002" extra race-to-roller clearance, as compared to standard bearings - just to ensure the "captive customer" process continues.
Caterpillar take captive customer processes even further by arranging with a bearing manufacturer to provide them with the tooling/machines to manufacture Cat bearings.
This (Caterpillar-owned) tooling/machinery is then installed in the bearing manufacturers factory and operated by the bearing manufacturer.
Those machines or tooling are then not allowed to be used to produce Cat bearings for any aftermarket supplier - with the threat of loss of contract and punitive damages used by Cat, if the bearing manufacturer does so.
RK have obviously honed "captive customer" processes to an even sharper level than Cat.
One of the problems of course, is trying to determine just how much of the company/corporations regular overheads are being sheeted home to repairs/replacement parts, particularly when the repairs are small or infrequent.
The actual parts or repair cost can often be very low - but the company/corporation then tacks on a huge company/corporation overhead cost, as part of the repair/replacement cost of the smallish item - resulting in astronomical charges.
It's not unreasonable to expect that a portion of the company/corporations overheads are tacked on to every job or spare part it supplies - but when the repair or part is obviously a very low cost, and there's additional built-in charges that bear no resemblance to any level of fairness - then it's only right that loud protestations are made.
I spent a very large part of my working life trying to beat Caterpillar at their "captive customer" rorts - and aftermarket suppliers are crucial to the equation to provide robust competition and a level playing field.
It appears RK think they have no competition and can charge what they like. That definitely needs to change. They are practising a blatant "captive customer" rort, with obviously no ability or desire to justify their charges.